1. Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2021; 7 pm PDT (9 pm CDT, 10 pm EDT): We welcome Jeromy Grimmett to the program to discuss Rogue Aerospace, on orbit satellite servicing and more.
3. Friday, Apr.23, 2021; 9:30-11 am PDT (11:30 am-1 pm CDT, 12:30-2 pm EDT): We welcome back Jim Muncy to discuss the latest with NewSpace, commercial space, policy, space politics and more.
4. Sunday, Apr.25, 2021; 12-1:30 pm PDT (3-4:30 pm EDT, 2-3:30 pm CDT): We welcome Ben Kellie, CEO of The Launch Company to discuss their work with critical infrastructure, hardware and mission support from Alaska.
Some recent shows:
** Sunday, Apr.18.2021 – Dr. Michael Gleason discussed “his papers linked on the blog for this show. In addition, we spent significant time on space debris issues with regards to LEO and the increasing population of satellites.”
** Tuesday, Apr.13.2021 – Dr. Martin Elvis discussed “lunar development, getting power to the lunar sites, specifically the South Pole and building giant solar towers at the Moon’s south pole to be able to provide multiple GW of solar power to the sites. Also discussed were possible lunar governance issues.”
The book details how humans could build rotating space habitats in low-Earth orbit using a design he called the “O’Neill Cylinder.” The habitat could recreate Earth’s gravity and would house millions of people for work and play, eventually solving the major concerns facing Earth such as hunger, overpopulation, dwindling resources, and war. His book and activism launched the movement to the global stage, forever inspiring a generation of free thinkers and space leaders, altering the course of American space industry forever. Dr. O’Neill passed in 1992 from Leukemia, but his vision still lives on thanks to the “Gerry’s Kids,” those who were inspired by Dr. O’Neill and keep his vision alive today.
is a documentary film about the life and influence of Gerard K. O’Neill told through the eyes of his peers, family and the younger generation he inspired during the 1970s and 80s who are now leaders in the modern day space race. Through old stories of “Gerry” as many called him, and the social impact he made on the world, this documentary pays tribute to the unsung hero of today’s space race, while hoping to inspire all ages and walks of life to reignite our planet’s space venturing spirit.
A rendering of a pair of large space habitats by Rick Guidice
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Prof. O’Neill was a big influence on my own life. I can recall a rainy gray autumn day in 1974 when I went to the mail box and found my latest copy of Physics Today. I was amazed to see that the cover of the usually staid trade publication depicted a huge space station. The article, The Colonization of Space by O’Neill, was equally unusual in the striking contrast between the mind-boggling boldness of his space habitat concepts and the matter-of-fact, down-to-earth manner in which he presented the motivations for such undertakings and how they could be accomplished technically and economically.
I was still a big space fan at the time but there had been a collapse in public interest in space in those post-Apollo years of the 1970s. The gigantic effort and expense that went into putting just a handful of people on the Moon for brief sojourns convinced most everyone that space travel was very impractical and that the domain beyond out atmosphere was as uninspiring as the bottom of the deep dark ocean. O’Neill’s ideas radically refuted such assertions. Colossal space habitats would become verdant islands thriving in the light of a brilliant sun, enabling the rise of new cultures and the opening of our vast solar system to endless exploration and utilization of its riches.
“The Stanford Torus – This space habitat design resulted from a NASA-Ames/Stanford University summer study. It’s a wheel 1.1 miles in diameter.”
As the film’s trailer indicates, O’Neill’s writings and articulate promotion of space habitats revitalized and re-energized interest in human spaceflight for many people. Quite a number of those “O’Neillians” continue to this day to work for the settlement of space.
The appeal of O’Neill’s habitat ideas certainly sustained my own interest in space and inspired my efforts with HobbySpace and other activities, which I hope have contributed a little bit towards encouraging public interest and excitement in space.
Unfortunately, we don’t yet have giant habitats in open space or even small bases on the surface of the Moon or Mars. For settlements to be feasible, O’Neill counted on the Space Shuttles to lower the cost of getting to space dramatically. Unfortunately, the failure of the Shuttles to come even close to that key goal not only undermined arguments for giant space habitats but for most any human endeavor in space. Lowering space access costs thus became the focus for the past few decades for O’Neillians, some of whom pursued rocket ventures themselves or advocated for government initiatives like the DC-X/XA prototype reusable rocket and NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo program. Such efforts have shown progress as seen by the significant drop in launch prices with the arrival of SpaceX’s partially reusable Falcon 9 rockets. The fully-reusable, fast turnaround Starships now in development could offer the break-through that finally enables affordable space travel.
Elon Musk discounts in-space habitats and sees Starships as the means to create a city on Mars. However, such vehicles will be available for all sorts of space endeavors and space stations are sure to be among these. If designed to grow incrementally and take advantage of resources from the Moon and the asteroids, such orbital installations could eventually evolve into O’Neill’s islands in the sky.
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Here is a “Roundtable TV interview” from 1975 in which O’Neill and Isaac Asimov discuss in-space colonies with former Esquire editor Harold Hayes:
Physicist and space pioneer Gerard K. O’Neil gathered a community of followers as he led planning for vast, magnificent human settlements in space. Guests Dylan Taylor, Will Henry and Ryan Stuit have produced an inspiring, feature-length tribute to O’Neill that stars space luminaries including Jeff Bezos, Frank White, Lori Garver, Rick Tumlinson, and many others. Then Bruce Betts and Mat Kaplan are joined by a special listener guest on What’s Up.
Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Expedition 64 Change of Command – April 15, 2021 – NASA Video
Command of the International Space Station was passed from Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos to Houston native and NASA astronaut Shannon Walker during a ceremony on the orbital outpost on April 15. Ryzhikov is returning to Earth April 17 with Expedition 64 crewmates Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos and Kate Rubins of NASA in the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan to complete a journey of 185 days in space. Walker remains on the station as commander of Expedition 65 with cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Aki Hoshide, and Thomas Pesquet are about to fly NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station. Before their launch, we brought them in the studio to test what they know about each other – and what they think they know about each other — as they look forward to going to space together for six months.
** Crew-2 Flight Readiness Review Media Teleconference – NASA Video
** Christine Kretz, International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory – NASA Video
Sessions from NASA History Symposium – NASA and the Rise of Commercial Space From activities in low-Earth orbit to the Artemis program, the commercial space industry is beginning to take on an increased role as innovator in both space access, commerce, and exploration. This growth of commercial space over the past decades offers the potential for a new paradigm for space exploration—one in which industry transitioned from supplier to partner. Still, many questions remain spanning from the most seemingly consequential “How will humanity explore the Moon and Mars?” to the more basic, “What is Commercial Space?” This virtually hosted symposium explores this transformation and examines the historical context for answering these questions.
Can you imagine what the Earth looks like from 250 miles up? Well, now you don’t have to! International Space Station astronauts wearing small high-definition video cameras during recent spacewalks have delivered the evidence, and it’s gorgeous—have a look for yourself.
1. Monday, Apr. 12, 2021; 7 pm PDT (9 pm CDT, 10 pm EDT: No program today.
2. Tuesday, Apr. 13, 2021; 7 pm PDT (9 pm CDT, 10 pm EDT): We welcome Dr. Martin Elvis of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory back to the program.
3. Wednesday, Apr. 14, 2021: Hotel Mars TBA pre-recorded. See upcoming show menu on the home page for program details.
4. Thursday, Apr. 15, 2021; 7-8:30 pm PDT (9-10:30 pm CDT, 10-11:30 pm EDT): No program today.
Spacecraft Nation is envisioned as a $500 million/year, 5 year national investment program, operating in all 50 states, with the goal of upgrading America’s technical skills and technical toolkits to solve the many multidisciplinary problems inherent in space development and apply those skills to terrestrial and space challenges. Space is a fascinating and unforgiving environment with vast resources that will challenge, inspire, and train to excellence the next generation of scientists, engineers, technologists and entrepreneurs in high-tech tools, problem solving, teamwork and innovation.
A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest (find previous space policy roundups here):
On April 8, 2021, NSS conducted a space forum with Scott Pace, hosted by Greg Autry.
As the Executive Secretary of the National Space Council, Scott Pace provided the day-to-day leadership and coordinated issues across the many departments and agencies that were involved in space to ensure the president’s agenda was enacted. With experience at NASA, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Pace has been involved in the decisions that have shaped the US space program. Along with his professional experience, Dr. Pace’s early membership in the L5 Society and the OASIS chapter of NSS in Los Angeles, plus chairing the NSS policy committee after the L5/NSI merger helped shape and inform his time on the National Space Council.
Host Greg Autry, NSS Board of Directors, engaged in a dialog with Dr. Pace on a range of topics including his experiences on the Council, at NASA, space activism, the current state of the space program and his role as the Director of the Space Policy Institute. …
** Chinese Space from a US Perspective (feat. Ian Christensen & Rob Ronci) – – Dongfang Hour – YouTube
1) Information asymmetry…. 2) Competition is not the same in all sectors. … 3) There is willingness, and indeed encouragement, by US companies to compete with Chinese companies, but under well-defined terms. …
“How can the space community learn from important precedents such as the ISS, support continued collaboration and development of shared norms, and ensure that “diversity” results in a rich plurality of flourishing lunar activities. This salon will inform and be informed by our 2021 themes “Peaceful Moon” and “Access.”
** Andrew Aldrin – What Direction Does The Space Economy Need To Move In? – Cold Star Project S03E16 – Cold Star Technologies – YouTube
Dr. Andrew Aldrin is back on the Cold Star Project and this time we’re diving into the funding sources and direction for the space economy. What needs to happen and what should we be looking at? Does the Silicon Valley investment model fail in the space industry? Are there obvious next steps, or do we need to continue to guess what’s on the horizon? Andy shares his valuable experience and perspective in this open discussion with Cold Star Project host Jason Kanigan. We also touch on the ISU Center for Space Entrepreneurship’s Graduate Certificate Commercial Space Program. Info on the program: https://www.fit.edu/isucse/
Elina Morozova in conversation with Dr Olga Volynskaya, an independent Russian space law and policy expert with a very unique background, holder of industry awards and commendations, corresponding member of the Russian Tsiolkovsky Academy of Cosmonautics, an individual member of the International Institute of Space Law.
Olga Volynskaya has spent the last 15 years working in the field of international and Russian space law and the development of space policy and legislation. Having gained practical experience and industry knowledge in Roscosmos and its subordinate organizations, she subsequently moved to the Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Olga’s track record includes a few successfully prepared sessions of the COPUOS Legal Subcommittee, at which she participated as part of the Russian delegation and coordinated the most topical issues on the agenda. Since the end of 2020, Olga has been engaged in academic research and international projects on a freelance expert basis. …
Advances in space technologies were largely invisible to the public equity markets until July 2019, when Virgin Galactic announced its intent to go public through a merger with Social Capital Hedosophia, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). Since then, seven space-related technology companies have announced SPAC transactions to take them public in 2021 (with more on the way). Does this represent a tipping point for the new space economy, or is this trend a flash in the pan?
In “SPACs in Space: A New Frontier for Investment,” thought-leading analysts, investors, and space companies will provide a unique perspective. Rather than focusing on the SPAC vehicle itself, this event will explore the trends and developments in the space technology ecosystem that have “suddenly” made space an investable ecosystem — and the longer-term implications for a range of interested stakeholders.
Expert Insights: Chris Quilty, Partner, Quilty Analytics Guillermo Söhnlein, Advisor, New Vista Acquisition Corp.
Host and Moderator: Jeff Foust, Senior Staff Writer, SpaceNews Jason Rainbow, Senior Staff Writer, SpaceNews
Speakers: Abel Avellan, Chairman and CEO, AST & Science Chris Kemp, CEO, Astra Brian O’Toole, CEO, BlackSky Peter Beck, CEO, Rocket Lab Peter Platzer, CEO, Spire Tess Hatch, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners
Breaking the silos that divide the global space community Today, there are numerous emerging challenges in space that raise a wide spectrum of threats, from undermining the long-term sustainability of human space activities to causing an escalation among nuclear powers. As such, world leaders, industry experts, academia and even celebrities are all adding their voices to the discussions on space safety and security. However, many of the different space communities do not often speak beyond their own niches. Indeed, even at the UN, safety and security issues are clearly demarcated, with unique competencies assigned to specific bodies. Yet as the world has seen over the last few years, space activities and the challenges they cut across many boundaries. Solving them will require cooperation and coordination among all the different space communities and beyond.
Join the Space Court Foundation for a detailed discussion on the impact of silos among the space community and how the disparate communities might come together to develop a responsive governance framework for space.
Moderator: Theresa Hitchens | Breaking Defense Experts: Andre Rypl | Brazilian Mission to the UN Organizations in Vienna Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan | Observer Research Foundation Dr. Peter Martinez | Secure World Foundation Mari Eldholm | Norsk Industriforum for Romvirksomhet (Norwegian Industrial Forum for Space Activities, NIFRO) Daniel Porras | Secure World Foundation – UNIDIR
This image shows an artist’s impression of winds in Jupiter’s stratosphere near the planet’s south pole, with the blue lines representing wind speeds. These lines are superimposed on a real image of Jupiter, taken by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Jupiter’s famous bands of clouds are located in the lower atmosphere, where winds have previously been measured. But tracking winds right above this atmospheric layer, in the stratosphere, is much harder since no clouds exist there. By analysing the aftermath of a comet collision from the 1990s and using the ALMA telescope, in which ESO is a partner, researchers have been able to reveal incredibly powerful stratospheric winds, with speeds of up to 1450 kilometres an hour, near Jupiter’s poles.